dry firing

hello people, i have recently started going to the range and am enjoying my self
i was told by the people there that i should practice dry firing to get more trigger / gun control.
is it alright to dry fire my pistols? i remeber reading some place that it damages the firing pin.
should i use a fired casing

Semi or revolver? Pachmyer and A-Zoom make snap caps you can use in your dry firing exercises. I've got both types, but actually prefer the Pachmyers. Pretty cheap and they usually come 5 or so to the package. Do a google or look for them at your local gun or sporting goods store.

Have you tried searching out an internet source for snap caps that would ship to you there? Using spent brass would not be recomended because the primer would be stationary in the chamber and only struck once (for all intents and purposes) and so the firing pin would be going through the same motions as if the chamber were empty. The Pachmyers have a brass plate in the position of the primer. It is attached to the end of a spring which goes into the plastic portion of the snap cap. When struck, it provides a bit of resistance for the firing pin which is absorbed by the spring. It all resets and continued repetitive dry firings is safer on the firing in this manner.

Starting with an empty, fired case, use a thin finishing nail to pop the spent primer out. Clean the primer pocket.
Find a scrap of medium-soft plastic. Nylon works best. Take it and the prepared case to a leather-craft shop.
Have the leather worker use one of his round-hole punches to punch out a piece of the plastic that will be a tight press fit into the empty case's primer pocket. Once you've found the right size, have the leather worker punch out a few more, for use as the first one wears out.
Push the piece of plastic into the fired case's primer pocket.
Very carefully pull a new bullet from an unfired case. Do all you can not to deform the bullet in the process. Push the new bullet into the mouth of the fired case, and use a prick-punch to dimple the case into the bullet, to hold it in place.
Maybe roll the finished, home-made "snap cap" between two boards, to return it to nice, round concentricity.
Put it into your pistol, and dry-fire to your heart's content.

(For safety's sake, you might want to drill two or three holes into the sides of the empty, bulleted case, so you can tell immediately that this one is your "snap-cap," and not a loaded round.)

Reprobate;
No snap-cap? To repeatedly dry-fire a semi-auto that has an external hammer, you could also try this:
Use scissors to cut a piece of 1/8"-thick leather or plastic so that it will fit into the space in the back of the pistol's slide that the hammer falls into.
Whenever you want to dry-fire, insert the leather or plastic piece between hammer and slide, and dry-fire away. The inserted piece keeps the hammer from hitting the firing pin, and absorbs the blow.
Fred, you could do this too.

Reprobate;
No snap-cap? To repeatedly dry-fire a semi-auto that has an external hammer, you could also try this:
Use scissors to cut a piece of 1/8"-thick leather or plastic so that it will fit into the space in the back of the pistol's slide that the hammer falls into.
Whenever you want to dry-fire, insert the leather or plastic piece between hammer and slide, and dry-fire away. The inserted piece keeps the hammer from hitting the firing pin, and absorbs the blow.
Fred, you could do this too.

That would work fine.....I just don't see the need.

I'm following in a LONG line of bullseye shooters who dry fire WAY more than the average bear. Now I'm only taking about 1911's because that's all bullseye shooters use (for a centerfire). No issues with dry firing 1911's.....none, and we are talking about some obsessed competitors who will literally dry fire HUNDREDS of times a DAY.

Not to mention the firing pin in my Springfield is made of titanium.....which gives me even more piece of mind. And last but not least a new pin is relatively cheap.....if it ever came to that.....which I don't think it will. (But I will let you know if I ever hurt anything).